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The 1920s should not have been a flourishing period for Mexican art. The revolution had just ended. The cruelties of war and constant political upheavals had fragmented the country. And illiteracy was rampant.
Alvaro Obregon, the newly elected president, had to unify his fragile country if it was to stabilize. But how do you unify an uneducated and racially mixed people? One of his most brilliant moves was to appoint poet and educator, Jose Vasconcelos, as Minister of Education and Art.
Vasconcelos envisioned a people coming together and being educated through the arts, much as the country's indigenous ancestors had done. Art was to belong to the people, not the elite. Artists were encouraged to produce and teach, and through both, define what it was to be Mexican.
A climate was created that opened the way for exploration and experimentation in the arts. An already unhappy student body at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes went on strike to protest the rigid, classical education that the school provided. They demanded and won the right to a new director.
Ramos Martinez was the unanimous choice. His anti-academic theories breathed new life into the school. With Vasconcelos's consent, he opened the Chimalistic Open-Air Painting School. He followed the creed of an earlier Open-Air Painting School he had established in Santa Anita. This time he opened his school with the blessing of the government, and it was sure to succeed.
Students were provided with tools, materials, meals, and rooms. A convivial atmosphere with students sharing ideas made it an ideal environment in which to create. Within months the school move to Coyoacan but continued to work in the Chimalistic vein.
The school's original goal was to take the students from the Academy away from its classical training and to emphasize impressionistic techniques with Mexican subjects. In no time, the focus broadened. The students began adding vivid colors to their luminous palette, which was a marked departure from impressionistic subtlety.
Before long, the artists were painting their own world. It was an inevitable evolution given . . . .
Read the complete article . . . Plus view the photographs. |
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Miguel de Allende
